GrandCentral lives: Google launches Google Voice

It has taken what seemed like an eternity for those who weren’t quick enough to snag an account while the service was open, but Google has finally shown the world what it plans to do with GrandCentral — and it’s looking pretty awesome. GrandCentral users have been sitting in limbo for almost two years now, waiting for Google to either announce its plans for the service it acquired in July 2007 or shut it down as has been the case with several other acquisitions. Thankfully, the former is the case. Google let the cat out of the bag last night and announced Google Voice, which is currently a closed service being rolled out to GrandCentral users.

In a nutshell, Google Voice is Gmail for your voice communications. As with GrandCentral, you get one number that you can set up to forward to any and all of your existing numbers — mobile, home phone, office phone, etc. Incoming calls ring to all attached lines and if you don’t answer, any voicemail left will be stored in a visual queue and can be accessed from any computer or mobile phone. Google Voice picks up where GrandCentral left off and adds some big functionality such as voicemail transcription, SMS, free conference calling and plenty more. We’ll be watching this one closely as it’s a huge and necessary step as Google moves further and further toward world domination. Can you say, Android integration? Current GrandCentral users will be rolled over into Google Voice over the next couple of days but unfortunately there is no word on exactly when the service might open up to new users.

I missed the boat on grandcentral back in the day can’t wait for google voice to open up hopefully is as good or better than youmail…

blur(p)s

Wooooooow! This sounds preeetty sick! and way useful! Good on ya Google!

RobR

I have been using GrandCentral for a couple of years now, and I love It. I’m glad to see that they are going to extend it’s functionality.

Brian S.

I am a GrandCentral user awaiting my upgrade instructions. One gripe I have is that I have a GC phone number which is great, but I also have a cellphone number. It is confusing for my friends and relatives to explain why I have 2 different numbers. I need a way to mask my outgoing number to appear as my GC number.

Adam

GC is not stating in my Inbox:

“Your account is not yet ready to be upgraded. Please check back shortly.”

Excited to try out Google Voice once I can log in!

Michael

I upgraded and tried it out. It’s a huge step up. The interface really takes its cues from GMail. I’m looking forward to playing around with it!!

NA

I ungraded but it’s not working. My “new” voicemail is on the site but when people call it’s getting the old one and emails/voicemails aren’t coming in.

652059

Glad to hear this. I’m excited to have the option of disabling the “Press 1 to …” message on incoming calls.

Roger A

Been using GrandCentral since it started and been waiting for Google to shut it down actually. I hope they don’t limit calls and with SMS ill only give out my GC number from now on. Yes!!!

http://www.twitter.com/mrelusive Mr. Elusive

Google has made grand central into what it should have been with the new features. My question is;

I accidentally linked my google voice to the wrong google account, is there anyway to unlink it and link it to another account?

John

I am using the service with my G1. Whenever I try to play the voicemail it says the mp3 download failed and I am not able to get to the VM. The mobile site is also quite minimal.

John

If you are using Steel on the G1 you will have that issue. Even if you open it in the native browser it will try to open and download the attachment in Steel. I just had to uninstall steel to get it to work.

Wrecluse

Hello GrandCentral (and soon to be Google Voice) users:

We have started the upgrade process, and are rolling the service out to new users on an ongoing basis. When your account is ready to upgrade, you will notice an “Upgrade” message at the top of your GrandCentral inbox.

Once you choose to upgrade, you will automatically get all the great new features (transcription, SMS, conference calling, cheap international calling, Goog411 integration, etc.), and new voicemail and SMS messages will begin appearing in your Google Voice inbox.

As we copy your previous voicemails to your new account, you may not see some of these messages in your Google Voice inbox, and you can still find all your previous voicemail messages in your GrandCentral account.

After the upgrade you should go to your “Settings” tab and do the following:

1. Re-record your voicemail greeting
2. Re-record your user name (callers hear this the first time they call you if Screening is on)
3. Select any custom settings you want (display caller ID, screening on/off, etc.)

If you want to move your contacts from GrandCentral to Google Voice, here are some instructions on how to do that. If you have any group or contact specific settings or any WebCall buttons (now called “Call Widgets”) you will need to re-create those as well.

We hope you enjoy the new Google Voice service!

jimmycinla

@ Brian S. – you can do this by going to grandcentral.com/mobile on your phone and place the call from there.

Larry

to the above post….Not if you have a Blackberry :(

Maikel

Good!!! Been witht hem for a few years now, so looking forward for Google to make it even more useful.

John

Do you think this uses minutes, or just data?

Jeff

I hope they finally get some Canadian numbers!

BB

Who’s Google using for the transcription voicemail service or did they build in-house?

http://blog.weaverling.org/ weave

I’ve had Grand Central for I believe a few years now. Got lucky — there was a small window where Consumerist.com had a story and link to get a number, which I jumped on.

However, I haven’t really used it because I’ve been fearful it would shut down. However, now it’s getting some love I’m probably going to switch to it. If they could port my home number, all the better.

ZenDaddy

It’s pretty nifty, would be nice if it was more seamlessly integrated with my gmail box. One caveat though, it wouldn’t attach to my Google App account so it’s attached to a almost never used gmail account which entirely blows.

Nick

Google Voice is great! You now have the options of making a free long-distance call (in the U.S.), and Goog411 Directory Assistance. The voicemail menus have been re-recorded are are easier to understand. I’ve been using GC for about 2 years, and I really like it. I reccomend it. Visit http://www.google.com/voice for signup information. Great job Google!